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Daddy on the Road, Mommy on the Run
December 17, 2006
Only seven sleeps...
UNTIL CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!
HOOORAYYY!!!
I just LOVE Christmas Eve! There is something so precious, so sacred, so anticipatory about Christmas Eve.
Here's the thing: I understand that Jesus was likely born at another time in the year, but HE WAS BORN. We met friends in Africa who had no idea what their actual birthday was; there are literally thousands of orphans who do not know their birthdays. However, once these little ones (and big ones!) are adopted -- whether by a traditionally adoptive family or a spiritually adoptive family -- people surround them annually to celebrate their birth into this world.
So, as far as I'm concerned, Paul's instruction about "one man considers one day more holy than another, one man regards all days the same" covers our family's celebration of Christ's birth on December 25th.
We just want to celbrate HIM! Doesn't matter to us as much when as it does that we do. Make sense?
By Biblical accounts, it appears Jesus was born at night. Joseph & Mary unsuccessfully sought lodging and ended up in a stable. The shepherds were watching their sheep that night when the angel made the (literally) Glory-ous announcement.
So even if it didn't happen in the early morning hours of the 25th, that night before was spent in a stable, Mary in labor, Joseph serving as husband and midwife (and I'm guessing that wasn't a traditional role for Hebrew men), sheep and cows and oxen and mice all eating and noising about perfectly oblivious to the Deity born before them (well... all of nature cries out, so maybe they knew).
But this is why Christmas Eve is so very, very dear to me. What a sacredness accompanies His birth!
Now that I'm a mother, the thought of laboring in those conditions makes me shudder. The Eternal God -- Elohim -- our LORD chose to come in skin in a barn surrounded by straw, dirt, and critters.
WOW.
What a MIGHTY and MERCIFUL God we serve!
This Christmas Eve, I'm going to sit and wait, in anxious anticipation. I'm going to love on my babies and we're going to read Luke's account of Jesus' birth and act it out with the quilted Nativity scene and we're going to get EXCITED!!! We're going to bake His birthday cake and we're going to sing to Him twice -- once that night when we finish making the cake and again on Christmas Day to officially celebrate His birthday.
We sure do love birthdays around here; we celebrate BIG and we sure sing LOUD. And this year, we're going to be dancing and singing and eating and laughing at the BEST birthday party of all -- the One who made celebrations possible!
But before we get to that, we're going to huddle together by candlelight and firelight, read in hushed voices and anticipate.
I love Christmas Eve -- just waiting for Him, just waiting for the party, just waiting for His company.
Kind of like the other 364 days, isn't it? I'm just waiting for Him, for the wedding party, for His physical presence in my life.
Come, Lord Jesus, come! (And VERY happy birthday, too!!!) |
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Posted by
Anonymous 
December 19, 2006 - Untitled Comment